Variety, the key element

Excerpts from an interview with Ashvini:

You seem really excited about your new reality show ‘India’s Got Talent’...

Yes. More so, because we are the first guys to do it in Asia. Britain’s Got Talent is Britain’s biggest show. Almost all countries in Europe and Africa have already got this show. Now it’s India’s turn to showcase its talent to the entire world.

What makes this show different from other mushrooming talent hunts?

Firstly, there is no age barrier on this show. Even a four-year-old can participate along with a 90-year-old. Secondly, there is no fixed talent like singing or dancing that we are looking at. There is only one condition — you can do anything as long as they entertain the judges and audiences. If you think scratching your head is a talent and want to entertain doing so, go ahead!

Don’t you think in that case the judging will be unfair, keeping in mind that a four-year-old may not have the expertise to match the talent of an adult, say a fire-eater?

The only criterion in the show is entertainment. Participants will have to show their talent within two minutes. If the four-year-old with her simple act entertains the jury and audience more than the fire-eater, she will be selected.

At the moment, you are conducting auditions. How’s the response?

It’s overwhelming! So far we have done mini-auditions in seven cities like Lucknow, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. Normally, the south zone is overlooked in most reality shows. But we have taken into account all four zones. You won’t believe it, we have got exceptionally talented people from even remote villages.

When is the show going on air?

We hope to go on air mid-June. There will be 17 episodes, including the grand finale. There will be some extra episodes called India’s Got More Talent to give a platform to the performers who we won’t be able to accommodate in the main programme.

Will you go for a contract signing for any special programme with the winner?

At the moment we don’t have any such plans. But let’s see if any such thing can be done in future. The winner will get Rs 50 lakh as cash prize.

What are the new shows in the pipeline for Colors?

We are doing Chotey Miyan Chapter 2 as well as some new soaps. And then there is Sundaywali Subhah.

What’s that?

See, we are trying to revive the time bag on Sunday mornings, when the entire family, especially the kids will sit together and watch various shows. Doordarshan used to have its Sunday package long ago. After that no channel ever tried to work on Sunday morning shows. To start with, we will be showing serials for children like Vikram aur Betaal and Swami Narayanan.

Most of the soaps and shows on Colors are child-centric — be it ‘Balika Vadhu’, ‘Sri Krishna, Lado’ or ‘Uttaran’. Is it purely for the sake of TRPs ?

Not at all. If you see the soaps on Colors, you will find that no two shows are similar.  We maintain a variety as most soaps are based in different parts of the country. They are partly taken from real life stories. So we don’t chose children for TRPs, but for variety.